Pearce explained his decision to vote for Boehner to lead the House in a statement sent on Tuesday afternoon.

“After the November elections, the newly elected members of the Republican House met in the Capitol to discuss the priorities and leadership for the Congress to come,” Pearce said. “In a private meeting, outside the gaze of the cameras and the related posturing for publicity, not a single Member of the House challenged John Boehner for Speaker and he was re-elected without opposition.”

“I will fight the hard fight. Two years ago, I was in the middle of the fight to change leadership in the House. I was one of 8 Members who voted against John Boehner for Speaker,” Pearce continued. “That effort to change Speakers failed.”

This year, 25 Republicans voted against Boehner for Speaker. Two even voted for members of the U.S. Senate (the Speaker of the House does not have to be a member of the House).

It was perhaps for the best that Pearce did not participate in the “posturing for publicity” that two dozen of his colleagues did and vote against Boehner. Two of the Republicans who voted for opponents of Boehner were removed from the House Rules Committee.

This prompted a response from Ted Yoho, R-Fla., a frequent critic of Boehner.

Ted Yoho, R-Fla., who also ran for speaker Tuesday, called it “a sad day for American politics” and “something I would assume Vladimir Putin would do.”

Yoho then stepped on an elevator with other members and began relaying the news about Webster and Nugent with, “Hey, welcome to the new USSR.”

Reps. Ben Ray Lujan and Michelle Lujan Grisham, both Democrats, voted along with the majority of Democrats for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker.

Related

More About

At a rally organized by a far-right, pro-Trump organization, the ralliers were outnumbered five-to-one from counterprotesters. The rally largely went off without any incident beyond the two groups shouting and chanting at each other.
The protest was organized as a “Freedom First Flag Wave” by Bradley Burris, a New Mexico resident who hosted a Proud Boys podcast earlier this year.

New Mexico’s primary elections are still more than eight months away, but that hasn’t slowed down candidates for U.S. Senate. Both the Republican and Democratic primaries have multiple candidates already, but arguably the Democratic race is the closest watched so far.
Democrats will choose between U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján, who is walking away from the high ranking position in U.S. House leadership of Assistant Speaker of the House to run, or Maggie Toulouse Oliver, New Mexico’s Secretary of State.

It’s predictable after every new mass-shooting horror: The political right’s reflexive call for “thoughts and prayers,” which is then mocked by people who favor more gun restrictions for lacking any accompanying ideas for preventing future killings. But there’s an equally predictable refrain on the center-left and in the media, too: “Once again, nothing will be done.”
Barely had the death toll of 17 been announced last week after the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida than The Washington Post declared, “The gun debate is going nowhere quickly after Parkland.” CNN offered: “Amid continued string of mass shootings, gun control going nowhere in Congress.” After 59 concert-goers were mowed down in October, former Democratic congressman Steve Israel put to rest any hope for reform in a New York Times op-ed column titled “Nothing Will Change After the Las Vegas Shooting.”
This fatalism is borne of hard-won experience.

New Mexico’s governor has officially become a party in a legal battle over whether medical cannabis cards should be issued to out-of-state residents.
On Wednesday, a state district judge approved Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s request to intervene in the case, which arose after a prominent medical cannabis producer challenged the state on wording in a state statute related to who can become a medical cannabis patient in New Mexico.
In a motion to add Lujan Grisham as an intervening party, her lawyers argued that the governor’s office is better suited than the state Department of Health to address some issues in the case.
Related: Cannabis legalization task force aims for compromise
“Public safety considerations such as the interstate transportation of marijuana, which is a violation of federal and state law, and diversion concerns are critical state policy matters,” the court filing read.
Kenny Vigil, the director of the state’s Medical Cannabis Program, was originally named in court documents but Lujan Grisham’s office argued that Vigil cannot adequately represent the state.
“[Vigil] lacks authority to address law enforcement concerns, approve regulatory action, or direct healthcare policy for our State,” the court filing read. “Thus, the significant public policy considerations interests at issue cannot be fully addressed by the current parties to this litigation and could be substantially affected or impaired.”
While at a task force convened by the governor to examine cannabis legalization, Department of Health Secretary Kathyleen Kunkel said the issue is too complex for her department alone.
“It’s such an important matter,” Kunkel said.

Matthew Reichbach is the editor of the NM Political Report. The former founder and editor of the NM Telegram, Matthew was also a co-founder of New Mexico FBIHOP with his brother and one of the original hires at the groundbreaking website the New Mexico Independent. Matthew has covered events such as the Democratic National Convention and Netroots Nation and formerly published, “The Morning Word,” a daily political news summary for NM Telegram and the Santa Fe Reporter.
Matthew has appeared as a panelist for the Society of Professional Journalists’ New Mexico Chapter’s panel on covering New Mexico politics and the legislature.
A native New Mexican from Rio Rancho, Matthew’s family has been in New Mexico since the 1600s.